So Juan all of a sudden deserves to be benched for exercising a no-trade clause that was agreed upon by both sides.

Where are all you people when another player exercises this option? He has done nothing wrong. If the Rangers actually want to punish him so they can use Mench instead, they are being fools. Who wants to play for an organization like that?

Another bad move by the Rangers. They have gotten themselves into this position by acquiring the team they have. They did this by design. Juan and the others bought in. Now they want to ship him off to Canada after they committed to him in a contract. There are many issues not to want to live and work in Canada, a significant one being the exchange rate.

Benching him, punishing, or hating on him for exercising a standard clause that is written into to hundreds of contracts and exercised all the time is absurd. If you are going to hate on him for this, at least hate on others who do the same equally.

It's all about money. Texas has been very good to Juan over the years to a tune of millions of dollars. Now the team needs to cut payroll because they aren't winning. Texas was pretty much asking for a favor from Juan by agreeing to be traded. They invested a lot of money in Juan over the years and they were just trying to get a little bit back by getting some prospects. So he didn't want to go to the Expos, no big deal, can't blame him there. Maybe Juan just wants to finish out this season with Texas and then retire. Nobody really knows except for Juan and that's it. Will he lose playing time? Yes he will, but nobody knows how much time, Texas management just said that they are going to the youth movement.

When you are born you are given a ticket to the freak show, I say enjoy the show. - George Carlin

Groundhog, I believe you're missing the point about this whole situation. The fact is that Juan Gonzalez is not the Texas Rangers. He is not in their long term plans due to his high future salary (which he has earned). The team would rather bring the future to the club sooner rather than later by playing untested youngsters. Texas aranged an opportunity for Gonzalez to play everyday for another team, but he refused it. Older players are shoved aside every season to make way for unproven youth. Gonzalez's situation and lack of uproar has nothing to do with race, but rather with Texas' goals as a team and the fact that those people who are familiar with Gonzalez's "Me First" attitude share zero sympathy for the man.

Your argument is based solely on emotion without using facts or sensibility to back it up. Please think it through, and you will see the errors in your ways.

You may go now young grasshopper.

"I tried to hit a 1,000-foot homer. I went down on the ground and wasn't the same after that."
- Henry Rodriguez

Well all players are concerned about their careers, but there are some that have no concept of the team concept. Players such as Scott Rolen, Juan Gonzalez, Frank Thomas, Bobby Abreu, and Jeff Kent are just some examples of guys who's behavior makes it apparent that team goals are nothing more than a whisper to them.

"I tried to hit a 1,000-foot homer. I went down on the ground and wasn't the same after that."
- Henry Rodriguez

The main reason for J-Gone not to go to Montreal is the turf. It has nothing to do with the exchange rate (his money would actually be worth more, in reality you don't really pay much more in taxes when you consider other factors [this came up when Vince Carter signed in Canada - Basically you don't lose any money] and he is still paid in American $.

Danks81 wrote:Groundhog, I believe you're missing the point about this whole situation. The fact is that Juan Gonzalez is not the Texas Rangers. He is not in their long term plans due to his high future salary (which he has earned). The team would rather bring the future to the club sooner rather than later by playing untested youngsters. Texas aranged an opportunity for Gonzalez to play everyday for another team, but he refused it. Older players are shoved aside every season to make way for unproven youth. Gonzalez's situation and lack of uproar has nothing to do with race, but rather with Texas' goals as a team and the fact that those people who are familiar with Gonzalez's "Me First" attitude share zero sympathy for the man.

Your argument is based solely on emotion without using facts or sensibility to back it up. Please think it through, and you will see the errors in your ways.

You may go now young grasshopper.

Danks, your whole post seethes with emotion. You clearly dislike Juan. I have no opinion on him as a person. I could care less. He has a no-trade clause, like so many other players, and he exercised it, like so many others. Why are you taking it out on him???

What the Rangers want now or for the future is irrelevant. If they want to play a young guy in favor of Juan to go another direction, fine. To penalize him for exercising a clause in which they commit to him is wrong. He has his reasons for not going there, be it turf, another country, money, family, personal reasons, etc. He officially waited 3 days, assumably negotiated it, thought it over, whatever. That is his right. He has done nothing wrong.

Ask yourself this....Why do I hate Juan???

I have an opinion, it may be different from yours. You can dislkie Juan because you have heard he is greedy, but you probably have never met him, and don't know what he is like. All else aside, if a random player exercised this clause, it would pass without issue. Because it is Juan, he's being a jerk.